The World’s 500 largest asset managers - Year end 2011

The P&I/Towers Watson global 500 ranking is prepared using joint research by Pensions & Investments and Towers Watson.

Highlights from this year’s report include:

Assets managed by the world’s largest 500 fund managers fell by over 3% to US$63 trillion in 2011, breaking a trend of the last two years which had seen assets rise by 16% and 4% in 2009 and 2010 respectively.

Due to recent falls, assets are now below 2006 levels of US$64 trillion and the top 20 managers were the segment which lost most assets in 2011, a decline of around 7%.

By number, bank-owned asset managers continue to dominate the top 20, although the number of independent managers in the group remained static.